The Bearcage Project

Who knew that by printing one small archive photo of a wooden buck shaped like no roadster we could identify (“A Year in the Life of Eric Rickman: 1960,” July 2011), followed by a brief history of the Cheetah (“More of the Same,” May 2013), we’d be blowing the dust off of the story about a stillborn sports car that directly preceded the Cheetah project? That dusty trail took us to Florida and Oregon and Don Edmunds, 85, who led the design of both cars: the former while working for Bill Stroppe in 1958–1960, and the latter in conjunction with Bill Thomas in 1962–1963.

2/13Here’s the 1960 Eric Rickman shot that got us interested in the mysterious rolling chassis and plywood body buck that Don Edmunds built at Bill Stroppe and Associates. The sports car was patterned on a sprint car (much like Frank Kurtis had done with an Indy-car design a decade earlier) and resembled the contemporary Chaparrals. The engine location was offset and set back in the wheelbase, putting the driver’s back against a quick-change rearend. Don would also build an aluminum body, but got no further before Stroppe jettisoned all extraneous baggage from the business in a streamlining purge. Of this Rickman image, Don says, “This was the last I ever saw of the car. Stroppe kept me pretty busy with other projects, and I forgot all about the Bearcage.”

At a time when “Birdcage” Maseratis were all the rage, Stroppe’s crew tagged this project the Bearcage (referencing Bill’s imposing physical presence). Similarities to the subsequent Cheetah were pointed out to us by historian Geoff Hacker, whose sport-custom collection was featured in our last edition (“Plastic Fantastic,” May ’13). Geoff rocked us with the revelation that the unfinished Bearcage not only survives but is safely in the hands of a buddy determined to complete a job that frustrated a series of talented owners over the last half-century.

3/13Don was chief engineer, fabricator, and co-designer (with Stroppe) on the Bearcage project. Construction began at Stroppe’s previous shop in 1958, before Bill relocated to this Signal Hill, California, facility (where ace-freelancer Lester Nehamkin shot a great set of B&W photos that evidently were filed away, unpublished, when the Bearcage entered sport-custom purgatory). California Metal Shaping formed the aluminum panels from Don’s plywood buck. These sections were painstakingly joined and seamlessly hammer-welded together, then smoothed to perfection by Don.

Don Edmunds was already a hero of Southern California’s high-performance scene before being hired at the storied Stroppe and Associates skunk works responsible for much of FoMoCo’s racing success. He arrived with a resume that included recognition as Rookie Driver of the Year at the ’57 Indianapolis 500 (though the freshman sensation had been driving professionally since 1947). Don had also been the lead fabricator at Bill Devin’s, Doug Caruthers’, and Eddie Kuzma’s race-car shops. It was at Stroppe’s that he became forever linked to the Bearcage. “I was just messing around with this for Bill in my spare time. I think he dropped the car either because he thought it was gonna be too much of a truck or because I’d be more valuable to him on other, paying projects. He hired me to run the fab shop,” Don recalls.

That experience would serve Don well when he was asked by Bill Thomas to hurriedly design and build an aluminum prototype that became the first Cheetah in late 1962. Interestingly, Don himself dismisses similarities “other than some shapes and the way shapes and curves come out of my mind. I was influenced by foreign cars whose front fenders were wider than the passenger area. I was on a ‘lost-waist’ kick [a term borrowed for the effect corsets had on women’s figures—Ed.]. By the time we started the Cheetah project, I’d realized the Bearcage would’ve been a tank. It had Indy-roadster facets that shouldn’t have been there. Technology had advanced to independent suspension.”

7/13As for the offset drivetrain and driver, Don explains, “Indy guys were using the offset layout in their ’50s roadsters.” The curious choice of a big Ford FE powerplant in Lester Nehamkin’s photos could reflect Bill Stroppe’s Dearborn connections. “Vern Houle was the engine man, and he’s dead now,” Don says. “Besides, that engine was probably just for mock-up, anyway.” We dig its 6x2 Edelbrock intake and Vertex mag. No one remembers what trans was used. The offset Halibrand quick-change is the lone original drivetrain component remaining with the car today.

8/13The next stop was Larsen Automotive in Los Angeles. Owner Denny Larsen (center, with twins Howard and Harold White) purchased the Bearcage from Moon in 1971. He saw its potential as a candidate for a 24-hour endurance record at Bonneville and stashed it in his barn for “many moons” before dragging it into the shop and making the necessary modifications. Note: Denny had previously built the Victress-bodied Mabee Drilling Special, which tossed a salty 203.105-mph rooster tail in 1953. That was followed in ’57 by a 178.068 record run with a Bob Sorrell-bodied SR-100 D/Modified Sports entry that Larsen later converted to street duty. —SG

After Stroppe cleaned house of unprofitable projects in a cost-cutting purge (“Bill was always in financial trouble,” Don recalls), the exiled Bearcage went mysteriously underground for a time, was “sold for a song,” according to American Road Race Specials author Allan Girdler, and resurfaced in the mid-’60s at Dean Moon’s Santa Fe Springs digs. “Someone had done a lot of bodywork before it showed up at Moon’s, maybe Don Borth or Bob Sorrell,” guesses Don. “That’s a mystery I’d like to see solved. I didn’t have time to finish it that nice at Stroppe’s.” (Ironic twist: Moon Equipment Co. was where Dean’s team assembled the very first Cobra for Carroll Shelby in 1962.)

9/13Pictured behind Larsen’s shop, the aluminum skin has been stripped down for the Bonneville remodel. Denny replaced Don’s tube-axle front suspension with an independent arrangement, among other updates.

Meanwhile, Don had ventured out on his own, ultimately designing and building more than 500(!) midgets, sprints, and Indy cars at his Autoresearch facility before retiring to the Oregon coast in 1982. Stroppe’s relationship with Ford flourished with NASCAR, Indy car, Pikes Peak, and SCORE/NORRA (off-road) involvement. He died in 1995. After a shop fire prematurely ended Cheetah production (and consumed the wooden buck that Don Edmunds mourns to this day), Thomas pushed on to pronounced success with USAC, NASCAR, Pikes Peak, and drag racing, among other endeavors, before passing away in 2009. Only the Bearcage lives happily ever after. and

13/13“It was one of those trips,” Hacker recalls with a groan, but it ended happily in Rick D’Louhy’s driveway (following intense negotiation with his pal). “I don’t want to begin this restoration until I have all the history on the car and every single part required,” Rick adds. “Once those pieces are rounded up, it will be restored to how Bill Stroppe envisioned it in 1960. It’ll be a rush to display this car, but it will race, too. I basically grew up at Watkins Glen and Lime Rock. I think the Monterey Historics would be the best place to run it—but with a skilled driver, not me.”